Well, hello there! I’ve missed you all! Between my vacation and my usual guest host at the beginning of the month, it’s been almost a month since I wrote a blog post. While I had a wonderful trip, it’s great being back in the swing of things again. And I have So. Much. To report.

First, the trip. It was awesome and amazing and I hardly ever thought about sewing. That’s just how awesome and amazing it was. : ) We went to Germany, Switzerland, and Venice. We hiked and explored and ate a lot and drank good beer. I’ve got a few photos below—you can see plenty more on my Instagram feed if you’re so inclined. (The one on the mountaintop was taken at the Schilthorn in Switzerland—and yes, I promise they were perfectly safe!)

Now that I’m back, I’ve got about 50 projects on my radar. And one of them uses this breathtaking collection right here.

I’m participating in a fun little challenge with a handful of other bloggers—including one of my co-authors!—to put a modern twist on traditional, using these stunning Denyse Schmidt Modern Solids by Free Spirit and Coats and Clark thread. I’m still mulling over my design, but I’m thinking the smack talk should start right about … now. So, hey, fellow bloggers: Bring it. We’ll see who’s got the mod trad chops, won’t we? : ) You can follow all of our progress by searching the hashtag #modernsolidschallenge.

By the way, all you readers will eventually get to vote on which blogger’s quilt you like best. And I’ve got a Denyse Schmidt giveaway coming up. Just sayin’. LOL.

I’ve also got this pile on my cutting table right now. It doesn’t look like much at the moment, but it will hopefully become a Christmas quilt—and a Christmas pattern!—very soon. And yep, more solids. It’s a theme, at the moment.

This WIP Wednesday is being brought to you by Westwood Acres, which I hope you are all familiar with by now, since it’s one of the best modern fabric shops on the interwebs. Westwood Acres owner Amanda once told me she’s a bundling expert, and it’s very true, they have some bomb bundles over there. : )

1. Link up any blog post or Instagram photo from the past week that features an unfinished work-in-progress (WIP).
2. To link an Instagram photo, click the Instagram icon at the bottom of the link-up screen, and use the URL of your IG feed as the link (for example, my URL is www.instagram.com/freshlypieced). Please hashtag #wipwednesday and mention me, @freshlypieced.

3. If you are linking to a blog post, please link back here to my blog somewhere in your post.

4. Comment on at least a few of the other WIP Wednesday links, either IG or blog—commenting on the two or three links directly before yours works well to make sure everyone gets comments!

Looks like you had a lot of fun! I love Italy! Don't blame you for the purchases, yummy bundles and how great you get to work with those gorgeous solids. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with 🙂